ROBOTS H?
using neural networks have performed miserably when their programmers have tried to duplicate in them the behavior of higher organisms like mammals. The most advanced robot using neural
networks can walk across the room or swim in water, but it cannot
jump and hunt like a dog in the forest, or scurry around the room like
a rat. Many large neural network robots may consist of tens to perhaps
hundreds of "neurons"; the human brain, however, has over 100 billion neurons. C. elegans, a very simple worm whose nervous system
has been completely mapped by biologists, has just over 300 neurons
in its nervous system, making its nervous system perhaps one of the
simplest found in nature. But there are over 7,000 synapses between
these neurons. As simple as C. elegans is, its nervous system is so complex that no one has yet been able to construct a computer model of
this brain. (In 1988 one computer expert predicted that by now we
should have robots with about 100 million artificial neurons. Actually,
a neural network with 100 neurons is considered exceptional.)
The supreme irony is that machines can effortlessly perform tasks
that humans consider "hard," such as multiplying large numbers or
playing chess, but machines stumble badly when asked to perform
tasks that are supremely "easy" for human beings, such as walking
across a room, recognizing faces, or gossiping with a friend. The reason is that our most advanced computers are basically just adding machines. Our brain, however, is exquisitely designed by evolution to
solve the mundane problems of survival, which require a whole complex architecture of thought, such as common sense and pattern recognition. Survival in the forest did not depend on calculus or chess, but
on evading predators, finding mates, and adjusting to changing environments.
MIT's Marvin Minsky, one of the original founders of AI, summarizes
the problems of AI in this way: "The history of AI is sort of funny because the first real accomplishments were beautiful things, like a machine that could do proofs in logic or do well in a calculus course. But
using neural networks have performed miserably when their programmers have tried to duplicate in them the behavior of higher organisms like mammals. The most advanced robot using neural
networks can walk across the room or swim in water, but it cannot
jump and hunt like a dog in the forest, or scurry around the room like
a rat. Many large neural network robots may consist of tens to perhaps
hundreds of "neurons"; the human brain, however, has over 100 billion neurons. C. elegans, a very simple worm whose nervous system
has been completely mapped by biologists, has just over 300 neurons
in its nervous system, making its nervous system perhaps one of the
simplest found in nature. But there are over 7,000 synapses between
these neurons. As simple as C. elegans is, its nervous system is so complex that no one has yet been able to construct a computer model of
this brain. (In 1988 one computer expert predicted that by now we
should have robots with about 100 million artificial neurons. Actually,
a neural network with 100 neurons is considered exceptional.)
The supreme irony is that machines can effortlessly perform tasks
that humans consider "hard," such as multiplying large numbers or
playing chess, but machines stumble badly when asked to perform
tasks that are supremely "easy" for human beings, such as walking
across a room, recognizing faces, or gossiping with a friend. The reason is that our most advanced computers are basically just adding machines. Our brain, however, is exquisitely designed by evolution to
solve the mundane problems of survival, which require a whole complex architecture of thought, such as common sense and pattern recognition. Survival in the forest did not depend on calculus or chess, but
on evading predators, finding mates, and adjusting to changing environments.
MIT's Marvin Minsky, one of the original founders of AI, summarizes
the problems of AI in this way: "The history of AI is sort of funny because the first real accomplishments were beautiful things, like a machine that could do proofs in logic or do well in a calculus course. But